The Toronto-Dominion Bank wants to score financial TDs at home and abroad. Also known as TD Bank or TD Financial Group, and one of Canada’s largest banks, it provides retail banking services under the TD Canada Trust banner, including checking and savings accounts, loans, credit cards, and mortgages, through more than 1,000 branches. TD also offers financial and advisory services to businesses. Other operations include TD Insurance, TD Asset Management (mutual funds), and TD Securities (investment banking, equities, and foreign exchange). US subsidiary TD Bank, N.A., formed by the 2008 merger of TD Banknorth and Commerce Bancorp, has more than 1,100 branches in about a dozen northeastern states.[1]
Criticism
Environmental
- New Report Finds Toronto Dominion Bank Greenwashing Poor Performance“TD has set no targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for their lending and investments or any investment goals for transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Also, TD’s weak biodiversity safeguards are attracting Canada’s most environmentally destructive projects and clients. These include the controversial Fort Hills oil sands mega-project and the clearcutting of critical caribou habitat by West Fraser Timber.”
- Green America: Responsible Credit Cards“Some mega-banks have been connected to other environmentally destructive projects. For example, five Canadian banks—RBC, Scotiabank, Toronto-Dominion, BMO and CIBC—are bankrolling oil, gas, and forest-clearcutting operations that are harming Canada’s Boreal Forest, according to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Canada’s Boreal Forest provides critical habitat for several species and is one of the largest intact forests remaining on Earth.”
- Decades of environmental destruction revealed in A LIFE OF CRIME“Noranda intends to erect six large-scale dams to power a destructive aluminum smelter that would release 1.5 million tones of solid and gaseous wastes every year into the heart of pristine Patagonia….A wide range of financial institutions around the world have invested in Noranda, including Brascan Corp, Canada Pension Plan & Toronto Dominion Bank in Canada, Harris Investment Management, New Jersey Public Pension Fund & Merrill Lynch in the US, and Barclays Bank, Legal & General, Credit Suisse, HSBC, London Life, Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank & Norges Bank in Europe.”
Business Ethics
- TD knew Enron cooked its books“TD knew at least one year before Enron sought bankruptcy protection in December, 2001, that its books were being manipulated, the monitor says in a damning report released yesterday. TD is the second major Canadian bank that the monitor has singled out. The report also sheds new light on the extent of TD’s involvement with Enron. The bank participated in about 40 transactions totalling more than $3-billion (U.S.) between February, 1997, and September, 2001, three months before the Houston company filed for bankruptcy protection.”
- Allegedly Wrongfully Withheld Certain of Its Clients’ Funds on Deposit“A class action lawsuit has been filed against the bank on behalf of customers who say they did not receive prompt access to their money after depositing checks or receiving wire transfers. The lawsuit was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of all persons who made one or more deposits into their bank account at any time between March 27, 2001 and March 27, 2007 and did not receive access to the funds in a reasonable period of time. The class action claims TD Bank wrongfully withheld certain of its clients’ funds on deposit.”
Praise
- Greens praise Toronto-Dominion environment policy“Toronto-Dominion Bank published a framework on Monday on how it plans to manage and minimize the environmental impact of its operations — a first for a Canadian bank according to two green groups. Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and ForestEthics, which helped TD update a 2005 environmental policy, said it is the first of Canada’s big banks to spell out how it will run its business, while trying to minimize climate change, conserve biodiversity and uphold indigenous peoples’ rights.”
Subsidiaries and Affiliates